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The curious case of the World number one golfer

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    The curious case of the World number one golfer

    It looks like that if Lee Westwood is able to limp his way around St. Andrews tomorrow to a top-ten finish, then hang his clubs up for the year, he'll claim the World Number One Golfer crown next week (because of the way the ranking system works), something that with him, Woods and Mickelson all then unlikely to play again until 2011, he'll keep until the year end.

    He'd not be the least deserving world number one of all time, by any measure - indeed, by finishing second (twice) in majors this season, he'll have done more in the big championships than some previous world number ones have done in the years they finished on top (Greg Norman in 1995 and 1996, for example) and furthermore, at the end of the day, the world number one is exactly that - the player who has, consistently, finished higher than their peers in the most tournaments over a 2-year period.

    But Westwood would be only the fourth player in history to become world number one before actually winning a Major - the other three, Woosnam, Couples and Duval, all won their first Majors in fairly short order straight after their annointment as world number one (Woosnam, indeed, the very next week). With Lee Westwood, there's a very real possibility that he will become number one next week, and still be number one in six months' time (depending on whether Tiger Woods can be bothered to pick up a club in the meantime) and not, actually, ever win a major. He'd be like some of the men and women who've held the top tennis ranking in similar circumstances over the years (hell, we've got one now, in Wozniacki).

    I know I'm a bit of a puritan about this subject, but it does get to me. I like world number ones to be the players who are demonstrably the best players at that moment in time. Westwood isn't that. Not right now. When you come back to write the story of 2010 in golf, it will say that Mickelson won the Masters by outplaying Westwood head-to-head, then pretty much no-one else did anything other than have one particular moment in time during the rest of the year. And Westwood ultimately finished top of the rankings mainly by then also being outplayed (this time by a complete outsider) for the Open title. It just seems ... weird.

    #2
    The curious case of the World number one golfer

    Wasn't Montgomerie ever top of the rankings then?

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      #3
      The curious case of the World number one golfer

      Nope.

      He was actually well on top of the total points ranking in 1996, ahead of Greg Norman (in the same way as Westwood is ahead of Woods now) but never ahead on "average" points, because he'd played more events. Because of that, Monty (who would have been a perfectly valid world number one in 1996 although one I'd probably have similarly have been arguing should have been overlooked for Tom Lehman, that year) never quite got to that pinnacle.

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        #4
        The curious case of the World number one golfer

        Isn't the golf ranking system weighted to give more credence to American tournaments? So, if you play all your stuff there, and finish to 10 in everything, you are higher in the rankings? (Jim Furyk, although a winner, is a fairly good example... although I retract that, as he is a very consistent golfer.)

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          #5
          The curious case of the World number one golfer

          It's a bit self-perpetuating, really. The ranking system isn't based on geography per se, but is weighted heavily to reward high finishes in events that attract the most players from the world's top 100. Most of them tend to play, naturally enough, where they think they can earn the most money. And normally where they are offered the most money is on the US PGA tour. A typical US PGA Tour event will be worth about 60 ranking points to its winner, a typical European PGA tour event about 35 (although ones with all of our big star's, like this week's, will be worth more). (Majors are worth 100 points, for comparison, and no non-major can be "worth" more than 80, even if every single member of the top 100 played). So the top players gravitate to the US for both money and ranking points, and because they're there, the events themselves remain the highest-rewarded.

          Japan's latest wunderkind, Ryo Ishikawa, has won six times on their tour in the last two years but is only ranked number 52 in the world for his troubles, as events on that tour are only worth about 20 points to the winner. He'd have to regularly win seven or eight times a year in Japan to obtain a ranking that would lift him into the top ten (which while daunting, isn't actually without precedent - Jumbo Ozaki managed that in the 1990s).

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            #6
            The curious case of the World number one golfer

            In an almost Rogin-busting parody of the whole situation, Lee Westwood wins the Sun City Challenge to retain his number one ranking, while Tiger Woods (who would have reclaimed top spot with a win) manages to lose his own tournament in a playoff to Graeme McDowell.

            Westwood will finish 2010 as world number one, because although he's only only won twice, his two second places in the majors and high places elsewhere are worth more points than McDowell and Kaymer (who won four times each) could muster.

            It's all up for grabs in 2011, though. It could be a little like the recent women's tennis rankings for a bit - there are six or seven players, not only Westwood, Woods and Kaymer but Mickelson, Furyk, McDowell and Stricker, for whom a couple of wins in the new year could see them take over the number one spot for a week or two.

            For a sport that's been so used to long-term number ones - Nicklaus, Watson, Ballesteros, Norman, Faldo, Woods, all of whom were top dog for several years at a stretch (Woods for ten of the last eleven years) - the idea of there being a group of six or seven who are all basically mixing it up to be number one on a weekly basis is exciting. Just unusual, in golf.

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              #7
              The curious case of the World number one golfer

              Martin Kaymer's up to World number two with his win in Abu Dhabi, which means Tiger Woods has dropped out of the top two in the rankings for effectively the first time in his professional career, given that it took him less than a year from turning pro in August 1996 to go from an entry ranking of 509th to gaining the top spot for the first time.

              The rebalancing effect of so many of the top players now being international rather than American was evident this weekend, too. Kaymer's win in Abu Dhabi brought him 56 ranking points, because of the relative strength of the field, whereas in America Jhonny Vegas' (no,really) win in the Bob Hope Classic was worth just 32 points. Admittedly quite a few of the leading American players skipped the Hope, but even so, it shows how the rankings this year will continue to reward the Kaymers, Westwoods, McIlroys and McDowells on our tour as long as they're playing and beating each other.

              Kaymer needs about 30 ranking points more than Westwood to overtake him as number one over the next few weeks. That would be the equivalent of (see above) another win on the regular tour, or a runner-up spot at the WGC matchplay (if Westwood were to exit in rounds one or two). Westwood may not be world number one going into the Masters, after all ...

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                #8
                The curious case of the World number one golfer

                I wrote:

                Kaymer needs about 30 ranking points more than Westwood to overtake him as number one over the next few weeks. That would be the equivalent of (see above) another win on the regular tour, or a runner-up spot at the WGC matchplay (if Westwood were to exit in rounds one or two). Westwood may not be world number one going into the Masters, after all ...
                I thank you.

                Martin Kaymer, WGC Matchplay finalist - and new World Number One.

                The top 6 in men's golf after this week (who will be Kaymer, Westwood, Woods, McDowell, Donald and Mickelson, the latter four in an order to be largely determined by tonight's final) will for now be separated by less than the amount of points you get for winning a regular PGA Tour event, let alone a major.

                The world number one position could go to any of them - and change hands several times as a result - over the next few months. And Rory McIlroy's only a couple of big wins - maybe at Augusta in April? - to rising all the way to number one himself.

                Exciting times!

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                  #9
                  The curious case of the World number one golfer

                  Donald is up to 3rd now after winning the WGC Matchplay.
                  4 of the top 5 are European and 6 of the top 10.
                  That can't have happened before.

                  1 Martin Kaymer Ger 8.36 pts ave
                  2 Lee Westwood Eng 8.16
                  3 Luke Donald Eng 6.64
                  4 Graeme McDowell NI 6.44
                  5 Tiger Woods US 6.32
                  6 Phil Mickelson US 6.23
                  7 Paul Casey Eng 6.02
                  8 Rory McIlroy NI 5.65
                  9 Steve Stricker US 5.49
                  10 Matt Kuchar US 5.20

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                    #10
                    The curious case of the World number one golfer

                    That is incredible.

                    Funny how I'm stirred by "Europe" at golf. It's not an anti-American thing though they're obviously great to beat because they're good. I like Europeans beating everyone.

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                      #11
                      The curious case of the World number one golfer

                      Well, 4 of the top 4 (not 5) are European, and you do have to go a long, long way for the only time that's happened before - the end of 1991 when Faldo, Woosnam, Olazabal and Ballesteros were the top 4.

                      As for 6 out of the top 10, though, I think you might be right this is unprecedented - I can find a couple of end of year rankings where Europe had 5 (including that 1991 one, where Bernhard Langer was 7th) but not 6 out of the top ten.

                      I agree that golf is certainly the only sport where British fans seem to feel any affinity at all for being "European", and cheer for "our" guys if they are from Koblenz just as if they were from Coventry. It must be because of the Ryder Cup, and stuffing the Yanks, but even when it comes to the majors, we seem to cheer for the European player against any American.

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                        #12
                        The curious case of the World number one golfer

                        This is shaping up to be a proper Year of the Five Emperors. Luke Donald will take the number one position for the first time if he wins the Heritage Classic this weekend, and he's leading after two rounds. If Donald fails, Lee Westwood reclaims the number one ranking from Kaymer with a win of his own in Indonesia. Next month's the BMW PGA Championship, and while any of those three would take a solid grip on the number one spot by winning there, as likely would be McDowell, or Casey, or McIlroy winning at Wentworth and rocketing themselves right up into the mix for the number one spot as well. Then of course all of the top 50 will be back together for the Tournament Players' Championship before then, where a win for Tiger or Phil would put them right back in it.

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                          #13
                          The curious case of the World number one golfer

                          Westwood back as number one. In a pretty clear demonstration of just how tight the rankings are at the top, Luke Donald loses the Heritage Classic on the third hole of a sudden-death playoff to Brandt Snedeker; had Donald won that playoff, he would have gone to world number one himself. As it is, he doesn't even go second, remaining third behind Martin Kaymer.

                          The number one position is very much "up for grabs" now, next month at Wentworth - Kaymer needs just 8 points more than Westwood to take the number one spot back again, and Donald needs a further 8 points on both of them. Those could be achieved by just a 5th-place finish for Donald, or a 12th-place finish for Kaymer, if the other two both finished well down the field. Needless to say, with 64 points to the winner at Wentworth, and 38 to the runner up, a win for any of the three takes them to number one (assumnig none of them has won the TPC in America in the meantime).

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                            #14
                            The curious case of the World number one golfer

                            Shoot-out at the Wentworth Corral this afternoon, then, as Luke Donald v Lee Westwood for the World Number One spot could almost become a sideshow more engrossing than the battle for the PGA Championship itself. Westwood goes out in the penultimate group with Fabrizio Zanotti, who's enjoying the week of his life so far, two shots behind Donald, who's in the joint lead with Matteo Manassero.

                            If Donald finishes ahead of Westwood and goes to number one, he'll be the first golfer ever to have got to the top spot without ever having been even runner-up in a Major championship.

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                              #15
                              The curious case of the World number one golfer

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                                #16
                                The curious case of the World number one golfer

                                Is it really nine months since Luke Donald did, indeed, win a playoff at Wentworth against Lee Westwood to take his world number one position, a position he has hung on to since?

                                He loses it this weekend if either Westwood or Rory McIlroy win the WGC World Matchplay, Donald (the holder) having exited that tournament in round one. They are both in the quarter-finals and will meet in tomorrow morning's semi-final should they both win; could be therefore that by tomorrow afternoon only one out of Peter Hanson, Mark Wilson, Hunter Mahan or Matt Kuchar (the quarter-finalists in the other half of the draw) can prevent the world number one spot changing hands for the 5th time in eighteen months, and if it's won by McIlroy, to the fifth different number one in that time, too.

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                                  #17
                                  The curious case of the World number one golfer

                                  Go on, Rory!

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                                    #18
                                    The curious case of the World number one golfer

                                    But the story is Tiger Woods brilliant final round of 62.

                                    There's few better spectacles in sport than watching Tiger Woods burning up the course on a final day Sunday.

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                                      #19
                                      The curious case of the World number one golfer

                                      With Tiger, Phil, Lee and Rory all seemingly bang in form, it's shaping up to be a cracking season. The Masters would be incredible if those four were the final two pairs.

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                                        #20
                                        The curious case of the World number one golfer

                                        Well, two weeks after losing the top spot, Luke Donald wins it back, and in some style, too, winning a four-man playoff for this week's PGA tour event in Florida. Rory McIlroy wasn't in the field for this one, and indeed won't be teeing it up again until the Masters in April, which will be the next time the top spot can change hands.

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                                          #21
                                          The curious case of the World number one golfer

                                          Going back to the original post - the case of snooker's world number one is a little strange.

                                          Mark Selby has won just 3 of the 40 events that comprise the rankings (two of which were minor events), and only four of the 121 ranking tournaments he's entered in his entire career. Compare this to provisional number 2 Judd Trump, who has won five of the events (including three minor), including the UK Championship - the second biggest ranking tournament. Trump was also runner up in last year's World Championship - but Selby has the greater consistency.

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                                            #22
                                            The curious case of the World number one golfer

                                            It's getting a little bit silly, now, this, to be fair - in the last five weeks the number one spot has changed hands three times between Donald and McIlroy, and will do so again, tonight, if McIlroy finishes better than 7th in Charlotte (and he's 4th overnight).

                                            There must be an argument for introducing something into the rankings to accommodate a "joint first" rating for two players whose records are so closely matched that they swap positions simply on the basis of whether one's played one weekend while the other hasn't.

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                                              #23
                                              The curious case of the World number one golfer

                                              Donald will almost certainly return to the number one position for the 4th (or is it 5th?) time at the PGA championship tomorrow, on the anniversary of him earning it for the first time when he won that championship in dramatic fashion last year. Indeed, he may well retain his European PGA title, too, which in itself would be no mean feat - only Langer, Woosnam, Monty and Anders Hansen have won this more than once since the championship moved to Wentworth in 1984 and became the tour's "flagship" event.

                                              Young Rory seems to have decided he needs a bit of time off - he's given himself the last two weekends off, anyway - which is probably not unreasonable for a 22-year-old lad with more money than midas whose girlfriend's in another country. I hope someone's around to pull him back into line, mind ... anyone remember Jerry Pate?

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                                                #24
                                                The curious case of the World number one golfer

                                                Rogin – having followed your superb coverage of the great game over the last four years I need to ask you about Dufner. For me, he is the languid-carpet-on-valium heir to Mr Freddy Couples. He’s also one of the only men I’d pay to watch. The fairground waggle, the liquid throw. I can even forgive the spit-dribble beard. There are only two swings I’ve ever wanted: Couples’s and Olazabal’s. I’m adding Dufner to that list. (He does need a good tailor, though.)

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                                                  #25
                                                  The curious case of the World number one golfer

                                                  I must admit, Dufner's swing is admirable in its simplicity. But, like mine, there's only so much you can do trying to swing around a beer belly! Maybe that's the secret, just take the hands back on a nice smoooth plane, swing down through the ball, head still, because to do any more of the nonsense the experts talk about when you weigh 15 stone would put your back and/or hips out ...

                                                  Whether Dufner can translate his recent PGA tour form into major titles will depend very much on what happens inside his head, though. His defeat last year to Keegan Bradley at the USPGA when the pressure really was on would have destroyed some guys, so he's done well to recover from that. Your man Freddy Couples blew the 1990 USPGA in similar circumstances then came back to win a Masters. I wouldn't back Dufner for next month's US Open, but he is the sort of US pro (Calc, Cink) who's popped up and won an Open Championship when the weather's been fine, so yeah, I might have him e/w for Lytham.

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